Author’s note: I wrote this on Sunday and discovered Monday night that I’d never published it. Sorry.

I woke up about 5 a.m. in a panic today, so I knew I wasn’t going to knit. My limited budget was weighing heavily on me because I have several expensive projects hanging over my head (mold remediation, taking down the tree in the backyard, etc) and last night, a second inch-wide opaque white stripe appeared on my computer screen, so I was worried that I’d have to buy a new computer soon. I used to deal with panic by running away from it and knitting or buying yarn. But this year, I’ve discovered that a better way (better than knitting? Yes!) is to do something extremely productive, like clean up the bathroom, wash all the dishes or do some other tasks that I’ve been postponing.

So I started by folding all yesterday’s laundry, then trimming and coloring my hair, and while the goop was still in my hair, doing its magic, I washed a sink full of dishes. And when the goop was all rinsed out, I got dressed, styled my hair and went for the longest walk I’ve taken in a long time. I need more exercise.

After my walk and breakfast, I did a little grocery shopping because I needed more garbage bags, and after I put the groceries away, I filled a garbage bag with old papers. Not just any old papers. I tackedl a couple of boxes of papers that have been waiting to be sorted for a long time. Some of them go back to 2009. Most of them are bank account records, because I do not feel comfortable relying on the Internet bank records. And there were other things. I am getting ready for tax time.

While I was at it, I went online and made an appointment for 3 p.m. at the Genius Bar at the Apple Store in Bridgewater. I have learned that one way to tackle panic is to find out exactly how much you have to spend on something and start budgeting for it. I decided it was best to know if this screen problem on my Mac is fixable or not worth fixing.

Well, now I’m back from the Apple store, and it turns out that the repair is expensive ($600) and probably not worth doing on my old machine. But, I can plug my son’s external monitor into my Mac and use that, and all that will cost me is the money for an adaptor. I didn’t get the adaptor because I didn’t know which of two jacks I would need, but now I know, so I’ll go back tomorrow. And Alex is going to charge me $30 for the monitor, which might seem ungracious, but he’s more broke than me, and I’m not going to make a fuss about it.

This is not an elegant solution, but it works for now, and I’m grateful to be saving money. There are just too many expenses this year, and work-arounds like this are very nice.

Having achieved this much, I feel a bit less stressed. My papers still aren’t completely organized, but I have the remaining filing down to one box. A few months ago, I had 5 boxes, so I feel good about the progress I’ve made.

I have several people to contact for e-mail interviews, people who have said I could interview them for this blog. I think you’re going to like getting to know them: Kirsten Kapur, Julie Hoff-Weisenberger (both designers) and the authors of “The Knitting Way,” Linda Skolnik and Janice MacDaniels. Julie is getting ready for Stitches West, though, so we may have to wait on that. But anyway, we have some good stuff coming down the pike.

And now that I’m a little less panicked and a little more reassured, I think I’ve earned some knitting time. Alex has informed me that he doesn’t want an olive-green hat, so I think I will take a rest from that project, although it’s half done. Instead, I’ll work on the prayer shawl, which is now about 49 inches long. It would be lovely to finish that up, especially because I think my friend is going to love it.

Article printed from In Stitches: http://blogs.mycentraljersey.com/institches